FIFA's Infantino suspected of intervening to stop probe, says report

Published April 28, 2020
Gianni Infantino was being investigated for allegedly awarding television rights contract to an offshore company in his previous role as UEFA’s legal affairs director. — AP/File
Gianni Infantino was being investigated for allegedly awarding television rights contract to an offshore company in his previous role as UEFA’s legal affairs director. — AP/File

LAUSANNE: FIFA president Gianni Infantino is suspected of having intervened with Switzerland’s attorney general to try to get an investigation dropped, a Swiss newspaper alleged on Monday.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) launched an investigation in early 2016, shortly after Infantino was elected president of world football’s governing body, about his awarding of a television rights contract to an offshore company in his previous role as UEFA’s legal affairs director.

According to the Tribune de Geneve newspaper, Infantino was “worried” about this investigation and wrote to his childhood friend, Rinaldo Arnold, who had become a senior prosecutor in Switzerland’s Haut-Valais region where they grew up.

“I will try to explain to the OAG that it is in my interests that everything should be cleared up as soon as possible, that it be clearly stated that I have nothing to do with this matter,” he wrote in an email cited by the newspaper.

Arnold, who had helped to set up a first meeting between Infantino and Attorney General Michael Lauber, replied: “What is important is the meeting in two weeks’ time. If you like, I can come with you again.”

The meeting took place on April 22, 2016, the newspaper said, adding that what happened during it remains “a mystery”, and the OAG “refuses to speak about it”.

The OAG declined to comment on the Tribune de Geneve article when contacted by AFP.

FIFA was also contacted for comment but there was no immediate response.

The Zurich-based federation has always indicated that the meetings between Infantino and the OAG were intended to show that FIFA was “ready to engage with the Swiss justice system”.

In November 2017, “after a third informal meeting” between Infantino and Lauber, the OAG closed the investigation into the contract signed by Infantino at UEFA, European football’s governing body.

The Tribune de Geneve also indicated that between July and September 2016, there were more than 20 calls between Swiss prosecutors and FIFA lawyers.

“Prosecutors have apparently helped FIFA formulate its requests” as a plaintiff so that they could be “accepted by the OAG” — an attitude which “seems incompatible with the OAG’s duty of impartiality”, the daily said.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2020

Opinion

Editorial

Judiciary’s SOS
Updated 28 Mar, 2024

Judiciary’s SOS

The ball is now in CJP Isa’s court, and he will feel pressure to take action.
Data protection
28 Mar, 2024

Data protection

WHAT do we want? Data protection laws. When do we want them? Immediately. Without delay, if we are to prevent ...
Selling humans
28 Mar, 2024

Selling humans

HUMAN traders feed off economic distress; they peddle promises of a better life to the impoverished who, mired in...
New terror wave
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

New terror wave

The time has come for decisive government action against militancy.
Development costs
27 Mar, 2024

Development costs

A HEFTY escalation of 30pc in the cost of ongoing federal development schemes is one of the many decisions where the...
Aitchison controversy
Updated 27 Mar, 2024

Aitchison controversy

It is hoped that higher authorities realise that politics and nepotism have no place in schools.